Clutch shot?

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SteelWarrior

Member
:
03.5 Mazdaspeed Protege
hey. pretty damned sure the clutch is shot but figured id ask for a second opinion. put it into say first gear and when i go to hit the gas the car revs up like if it was in neutral. like taping the gas puts it up to 4000 rpm or higher. if i gently apply pressure around the 5-6k mark the car barely rolls forward. obviously not driving it atm. the last week it was doing something similar BUT not nearly as bad.


about a week ago when i noticed it acting funny i asked a freind and he told me to test if the clutch was going by starting it up and putting it in first gear and just letting go of the clutch hard, the car didnt even studder, it just rolled forward, freind said that means it was on the way out because if it was working properly it would catch and stall out.
 
hmmm.....how big of a pain in the ass is an LSD to replace? i got an uncle who can do a clutch replacement, hopefully its something that can be done in his garage.


any way to verify thats it? the car doesnt make any wierd sounds or anything. just doesnt move. lol
 
okay AFTEr further reading of old help threads on this forum. had a few questions

1. Is it possible for the LSD to snap and not hear it? The car was gradually getting worst and worst but i was definitly behind the wheel with no music on when it finally was undrivable and i didnt hear a damned thing.

2. Would a LSD failure happen over time? for like 2 weeks i was losing power to the wheels. it was my understanding that LSDs go from good to broken instantly and it isnt gradual or expected

3. IF the LSD is completely shot is it possible to still move AT ALL? Right before i parked it i was able to get it up to 40kph with a s*** ton of reving (was in the middle of a huge intersection, had to get it off the main road, then i shut it down right away)

IF ANYONE knows or has expirence with the subject and can answer my questions id love them forever. I cant really afford to buy the wrong part to fix this issue.


Really makes me wonder if there isnt more then 1 problem. because im almost 100% confident that im getting major clutch slipage. becuase the acceleration doesnt match how high the revs are, and ive done the clutch test and it failed horribly, its actually impossible to stall atm.
 
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My lsd just went last week but it had been making noises for a month or so.... it kinda does sound like a plain smoked. Clutch but what did it zmel like? Burning clutch is. A. Pretty easy sign u blew it...? But it could also be and lsd problem too who knows
 
lol. yea i definitly know what burned clutch smells like. i didnt smell it the day it finally coughed out but i have forsure smelt it over the past month or 2. as for extra noise nothing really, my exhaust seems to be louder but likely just a leak or the change to warm weather sometimes causes it to sound different.

the funny thing is shifting isnt the worst, sometimes it grinds and it really doesnt like 3rd but i can still start the car alright. uncle was saying it could be the pressure plate on the clutch specifically that converts the torque to the wheels (not his precise words but it was mech talk so couldnt follow it all)


alot of others have posted noise from their trannies before their LSDs broke so this is somewhat encouraging. pluys my cars at 120 000 km and from what ive heard most break sooner then this and when i got the car it was slightly modded. always assumed the guy had a welded lsd.
 
well idk many guys who slightly mod there car that do have the welded lsd since the only benefit is that it wont break no gain in hp or tq plus its not cheap i just spend $650 on mine im about to pull the tranny in the next couple days but if u had to pay someone to do all that ur talking well over a thousand. anyways back to the topic idk what to tell you. ur probly just gona have to pull it and find out. atleast you can pull the tranny and see if its the clutch before u pull apart the tranny.
 
Buy a welded diff or spend a little more on an mfactory, put in a new clutch while you're in there. If you have tools, a place to work, and some experience it will be about a 10 hour job, add more time if you don't have air tools or haven't done a big job like this before. I've had my trans in and out 4-5 times now and I have it down to about 2.5 hours (with access to a lift and an occasional extra set of hands for the heavy lifting).
 
lol. expecting my first kid in like 6 months, cant afford to do all that s*** lol.

so turns out my clutch was ******. wasnt sticking when pushed to the floor but my uncle said the insides were garbage and the "plate" was paper thin. My flywheel was in decent shape but had to get it machined/turned. All in all wasnt nearly as expensive as expected. after giving my uncle 200 bucks, got a new oem cluthc for 110 shipped, came out just under 350 everything in. not 100% put back togather yet but im confident after seeing the clutch thats where my problem was. also replaced 2 cracked motor mounts and a split air line while he was at it.
 
lol did you try to drive it after you replaced the clutch? cuz i still think its the lsd
 
Geezer000 said:
Did you even read the symptoms? Theres nothing wrong with the LSD. If there was he wouldn't move AT ALL. Your clutch is gone, just replace and your good to go....
Click to expand...

Has your LSD gone out? When mine went I was still able to nurse the car 1/4 mile to a safe pull off with a very careful application of throttle and gear selection. I was barely moving and it would slip and lose drive, but I was able to limp it along. It didn't make any noise, didn't leave any metal shavings in the fluid, and didn't give any warning - it just let go. I have a sneaking suspicion that SteelWarrior will get the trans back in with a nice new clutch and then find that the car still won't move... I hope for his sake that isn't the case, but it wouldn't surprise me.
 
Geezer000 said:
Did you even read the symptoms? Theres nothing wrong with the LSD. If there was he wouldn't move AT ALL. Your clutch is gone, just replace and your good to go....
Click to expand...
Not true. The car can still move with a ****** differential. I've seen differentials blown to pieces, but if you rev the engine to 5,000 it can still pull the car along. I mean it's not going to pull a hill or anything like that, but on flat, level ground it'll creep along for a distance.

And to the OP- your friend is a ******* idiot if he told you to just dump the clutch at 5k to test it....
 
thepope540 said:
Has your LSD gone out? When mine went I was still able to nurse the car 1/4 mile to a safe pull off with a very careful application of throttle and gear selection. I was barely moving and it would slip and lose drive, but I was able to limp it along. It didn't make any noise, didn't leave any metal shavings in the fluid, and didn't give any warning - it just let go. I have a sneaking suspicion that SteelWarrior will get the trans back in with a nice new clutch and then find that the car still won't move... I hope for his sake that isn't the case, but it wouldn't surprise me.
Click to expand...

Never thought of it that way, my bad. I thought when they went they just went !POP!
 
The only POP I've had was when the rod came out the back of the engine and broke the starter motor in half. Otherwise all the mechanical failures on my car have been fairly quiet and unexciting - just stuff breaking.
 
bump to find the verdict because my car had the same issue today and my mechanic neighbor to my shop diagnosed it as being a bad clutch
 
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